A celebration of family resilience and the alliance of grands and kids.
With chaos looming, a cheerful, capable grandmother steps into the breach!
Sturdy of build, lilac-silver of hair, wielding a plunger with aplomb, Supergran is here to save the day. And the day is disastrous: Mom is late for work, Dad’s down with flu, sister and brother are each plagued by problems, the house is a major mess. But Gran quickly pops off her pearls and glasses, transforming into the superhero she is, and takes to the air. Teaming up with her grandkids, who are also kitted out with capes and uniforms, she “zaps a problem with a plan,” flying nimbly to conquer an overflowing toilet, dirty laundry, and loose pets big (Saint Bernard) and small (hamsters) until everyone is clean and fed. At last Mom is home and Dad is up, the kids are ready for bed, and every item on the to-do list is checked off. Gran lifts off into the sunset, unruffled and smiling. Cartoonish illustrations make the most of the superhero-comic style, with bright, flat colors and lots of foreground action. Spotting the hiding hamsters gives eagle-eyed readers a mild challenge on several pages. Everything, from the bouncy rhymes to the ebullient pictures, is energetically positive, concluding with solid suggestions for deepening connections with one’s gran or gran stand-in. Supergran and Dad are light-skinned, while Mom and the kids are brown-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A celebration of family resilience and the alliance of grands and kids. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781534111776
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers.
Two little rats decide to show the world how tough they are, with unpredictable results.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso want to be just like their single dad, Big Lou: tough! They know that “tough” means doing mean things to other animals, like stealing Chad Badgerton’s hat. Chad Badgerton is a big badger, so taking that hat from him proves that Louie and Ralphie are just as tough as they want to be. However, it turns out that Louie and Ralphie have just done a good deed instead of a bad one: Chad Badgerton had taken that hat from little Tiny Crawley, a mouse, so when Tiny reclaims it, they are celebrated for goodness rather than toughness. Sadly, every attempt Louie and Ralphie make at doing mean things somehow turns nice. What’s a little boy rat supposed to do to be tough? Plus, they worry about what their dad will say when he finds out how good they’ve been. But wait! Maybe their dad has some other ideas? LaReau keeps the action high and completely appropriate for readers embarking on chapter books. Each of the first six chapters features a new, failed attempt by Louie and Ralphie to be mean, and the final, seventh chapter resolves everything nicely. The humor springs from their foiled efforts and their reactions to their failures. Myers’ sprightly grayscale drawings capture action and characters and add humorous details, such as the Ratsos’ “unwelcome” mat.
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7636-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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